1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for diagnosing diabetes, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for measuring the concentration of glycated hemoglobin in blood.
2. Description of the Related Art
Medical diagnosis, medical treatment through medicine, and concentration measurement of analytes of anesthetics or harmful chemical materials are useful in medical or environmental technical fields. Concentration measurement of biological samples used for medical diagnosis and treatment is becoming the center of attentions with increase of human desires that want to get freedom from various diseases. Particularly, measurement of glycated hemoglobin in blood is useful to diagnose diabetes because it can expect the average value of blood sugar for a relative long term through one-time measurement, and accordingly, interest on measurement of glycated hemoglobin in blood is also increasing.
Glycated hemoglobin exists in red blood cells in blood. When the concentration of blood sugar (glucose) in blood is high, a part of the glucose in the blood is combined with hemoglobin. The hemoglobin combined with the glucose is called glycated hemoglobin, or HbA1c. Blood sugar levels can be determined by measuring the concentration of glycated hemoglobin in the blood. The measurement of glycated hemoglobin in the blood can be conducted regardless of mealtime.
However, in the case of conventional glycated hemoglobin measurement which has been carried out in a clinical pathology laboratory of a hospital, sample preparation is required, the size of measuring equipment is large, and reagents and consumables are expensive.
Meanwhile, U.S. Pat. No. 6,300,142 discloses an apparatus for reacting a test sample with a reactant in a first injection port and sequentially reacting the lest sample with a second reactant in a second injection port to measure an analyte existing in the test sample. In the U.S. patent, the measurement of the analyte is conducted periodically and sequentially, and a user has to intervene in the measuring process in such a manner that he or she injects the test sample sequentially to react the test sample with other materials. Also, since beads combined with glycated hemoglobin have to be filtered, the measuring process requires a long time.
That is, since the conventional measuring process requires the user's direct intervention in various processing steps, the user may feel inconvenient. Also, the user's direct intervention makes the measuring process more complicated, which further increases the measuring time.